What Is the Best Scale for a Christmas Train Set?

Top 5 Christmas Layout Scales (1 being the most ideal)

5. LGB- Garden Scale Fun! At 1:29 scale, G scale will cetianly provide a lot of fun on a large scale. You could even put most gifts on the flatcars and gondolas that come with the starter LGB sets! These trains are extremely durable and even capable of being submerged and continue to run flawlessly.

4. O27 Lionel – You can’t have a classic Christmas without a loop of LIONEL encircling the tree. Although unrealistic in every way from the standpoint of a real model railroader, the kids won’t mind as they take the hefty throttle and crank up the speed on powerful diecast 4-6-4 hudsons or streamlined F3 diesels. The wide range of “action cars” that perform some element of animation only helps to increase the fun exponentially. Their legendary durability also help too.

3. On30 is the perfect comprimise of Playable size, prototype accuracy and colorful family fun. Basically,these O scale narrow gauge trains run on HO gauge track! This adds flexibility and fun, as you can operate both scale on the same loop. Bachmann makes some really impressive and affordable equipment that lasts forever and can be used on more serious layouts in the future. They are also about the same scale (1:48) as those ceramic holiday homes that are so popular. This is the fastest growing portion of the hobby and hundreds of brand-new products are coming out in On30 each year since it was formally introduced in 1997.    

2. Lego Trains- Infinite Creativity in a scale that works out to roughly 1:32, which is close to #1 scale. The rebuidable trains add a lot of holiday fun and I really enjoy playing with these reliable, colorful and fun trains.  

1. HO scale- I may be biased, but this is still the perfect comprimise of Scale, durability, and unlike every other scale listed here, inifinite expandibility. 60 years of product development has made HO the scale richest in variety with literally hundreds of thousands of different products to build and play with. Your youngsters will be able to, should they become interested, actually be able to build a fun and realistic looin model railroad that takes up less space then all the previously mentioned scales without being fragile, like N or Z scale.

Gallery of the Scales

 

Set up a Holiday Train Display

Setting up a train around the tree should be an undeniable childhood experience, regardless of culture or religious faith. It could be a small N scale loop around a tiny potted conifer, or the traditional 7 foot Noble Fir with a loop of Lionel O27, American Flyer S, or HO rushing around the tree.

 
Scale is important in three ways.

-Child-based durability- My Parents gave me N scale for Christmas when I was three, and no matter how careful I was, it always got damaged. Larger, more toylike LIONEL offerings would be better for the kiddies. LGB G scale trains are nice too, but a pain to store year-round unless you’re a serious Garden railroader due to the unwieldy, heavy, and large boxes that are needed for storage. HO scale is a perfect compromise, and very expandable with 100,000+ parts you can enhance your train set with.   

-Time to set up / disassemble - Smaller scales will set up faster. HO seems to set up in less than 10 minutes, while troubleshooting a half-century old LIONEL set, finding all those blasted (probably lost) pin-shaped track connectors and maintaining those noisy old grease-bucket locomotives could drag on onto hours. LGB is the only other scale that sets up fast and nicely. 

-Size -You, or your parents probably don’t want the entire living room covered in mainlines, sidings and branch lines, engine terminals and bridges that could turn into a mine field late at night with just the tree lights on.

The K.I.S.S. principle applies here.Keep It Simple Stupid, as Lockheed aviation’s Kelly Johnson proclaimed, also applies to ’round the tree train setups. If you already have a model railroad, do you really need another more temperamental floor-based version of your plywood central? Probably not. Stick to the loop of track, avoid switches because unless you’re crazy about DCC, one train is all you’ll be running under the tree anyways. For larger scales like O scale, anything more than O27 is probably Overkill (pun intended) You don’t want a 10 foot diameter loop around the tree, as that complicates the “present zone” which lies just outside the loop of track. You want to be close to the tree while you open your gifts, don’t you?

 

Most importantly, just have fun! This is the PUREST form of the hobby of model railroading, and something to be shared with as many people as possible. This classic staple of holiday tradition should be passed from generation to generation responsibly and lovingly…then just crank up the throttle, sit in a comfy chair or track side and watch your mighty locomotive pull it’s colorful train of cars endlessly ’round the tree and relax.

Southern Pacific Common Standard #23 Depot in LEGO

The exceptionally restored and modernized Southern Pacific Common Standard Depot #23 located in Centerville, Calif. was re-created in LEGO’s at the BayAreaLUG modular layout. I approached the builder and complimented on the excellent, prototypical work he had done, which he appreciated. Being one to play with LEGOs from time to time, I can only imagine how expensive all of those specialized bricks were, such as the green roofing material and all of those minifigures.

Here’s the depot in LEGO, below is the photo of the actual depot. Note some of the more interesting details have been captured on the model as well!

Here’s some detail shots of the Depot.

And one of the roof and train-order signal

Altogether an excellent project in LEGO worthy of a modeling award.

San Jose Show Report – the “Fall” of 2008

Overview

The Great American Train Expo show in San Jose was heald on Sept. 27th and Sept 28th, from 10-4. It featured a healthy mix of the same modular layouts I have seen since I was a kid, and a few new comers. We were in a new building this year, it looks like a building at the San Jose fairgrounds that they might have auctioned livestock many decades ago. The Bay Area Z scalers “freemo” layout has grown appreciably since I last saw it in Pleasanton last year. There were plenty of vendors, but not even close to the crowds I wanted to see. Some G scale guy had a steam locomotive with an amazing sounding whistle…the first 12 times you heard it. There was a vendor behind me who had a bellows-whistle that, when pushed down, produced a cheesy 3-chime whistle sound, and then the vendors in the booth would yell “HERE COMES THE TRAIN!” which usually scared customers away…not a good sales tactic.

There was a good mix of the usual vendors, but not any new ones that I could find. This economy has really taken a bite out of the train-show market.

From the Perspective of the Buyer

From my initial wanders before the show started, there was a good mix of scales available to the potential buyer. Some neat and unusual HO scale stuff was for sale (I’ll show you my loot later.) For the first time there was a noticable prescence of Z scale offerings. N had the usual 2-3 vendors, there was an acceptable amount of H0. There were too many Lionel 027 dealers out there, and the vendors knew it too. There was also a fairly good selection of G and F scales. I didn’t notice much, if any, S scale. On30 was gaining popularity, and a few dealers had some really pleasing displays, like myself and a nice guy who sold british trains along side some excellent kits by Chivers Finelines, all built, painted and weathered. I would have bought quite a few of the excellent kits that day, but alas, I was short on cash. The convience of having an ATM at the front of the building was a really added bonus, because last year, people had to drive quite far to recharge their wallets. The food in the “California Grill” was much improved from last year, it was actually tasty, but it was PAINFULLY expensive.. $4.00 for a 16 oz fountain soda?!  

From the Perspective of the Vendor (Me)

It was really diappointingly slow. One vendor wa very worried, because the “sunday crowd” of Mothers with no money and their children, and the mentally disadvantaged were out in force. I have nothing against either group, but they don’t buy anything, at anybody’s vendor. They’re great crowd-fillers and layout spectators, but they don’t buy expensive custom weathered rolling stock or scratchbuilt buildings. (what I was selling.) 

Other vendors were really worried along with me, they had brought a LOT of merchandise, and it was all moving like molasses.  Half 90 percent of the interested people I talked to were either club members of Pleasanton, Fremont, or one of the Modular Groups or the Vendors themselves. They all had worried looks on their faces, and the more tables they had purchased (at $65 apiece), the more concerned they looked.

As far as sales were concerned for me, I didn’t even make my table money. I made a paltry $60.00 from selling an On30 porter to a nice gentleman in the On30 modular group, for which I extend my deepest thanks. The weathered cars were show-stoppers, but nobody bought them. (My prices weren’t that high either..compared to what I get for them on eBay.) My friend, Mike O. made a couple hundred dollars, and I was certianly glad that he did, his stuff was affordable and interesting.

I really wish I had seen more model railroaders out there in the crowd, but there were VERY FEW. It was really ominious. I hope the disposable income of the average model railroader wasn’t completely erased by the tough economy.

Photos of Show Vendors.

The Show had too many lionel and toy train dealers, this is not what I’m looking for, and the average age of lionel lovers is geriatric to say the least. I see less and less people interested in LIONEL as the years pass. I may be incorrect, but It’s really looking like that’s the truth.

One of my favorite vendors is the nice gentleman who sells these amazing custom HO, N and O scale loaded flatcars and gondolas.

Here’s a closeup of some of his custom loads. Look at the experimental “ribbon-rail” UP MOW flatcar on top.

Here’s a selection of locomotives, the two top being the Bachmann Spectrum On30 offerings, and the bottom is the GE25tonner On30 diesel from Chivers, it’s powered by the “black beetle” powered truck.

I hope you enjoyed this insider view of the San Jose Trainshow.